JAY – Credit union officials have asked the town to adopt a changeable-sign ordinance that is less stringent than the state’s regulation. They want their sign’s message to be able to change every two seconds.
The state Department of Transportation regulates changeable signs on highways, but the state Legislature passed a law that went into effect Sept. 17 allowing municipalities to adopt their own ordinance, Jay Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring said Wednesday.
A changeable sign, sometimes called a talking sign, is one that has its message change.
Under the state’s highway sign law, the message may change only every 20 minutes, she said, and the signs must change as rapidly as technologically practicable, with no phasing, rolling, scrolling, flashing or blending.
There are exceptions for time and weather, she said.
The state is concerned about safety, she said.
The new law allows a municipality to enact an ordinance that allows a sign to be changed more or less frequently than once every 20 minutes. A municipal ordinance could allow the sign to change as rapidly as the owner wants, and in any manner it wishes, except that the sign may not flash.
Otis Federal Credit Union officials have asked the Planning Board to consider adopting a sign ordinance, Ring said.
She will bring the proposal to selectmen at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, at the Community Building.
Although credit union officials want to have the sign in front of their building on Route 4 change every two seconds, the Maine Municipal Association is recommends that towns consider adopting their own ordinances that allow the signs change no more frequently than once every minute.
The association and the state have worked together to draft a sample ordinance, Ring said.
The state is concerned that there could be 492 different municipal ordinances regarding changeable signs, each with different provisions regarding frequency of change and manner of change.
The state and the association chose to recommend the one-minute change rule because it takes about 22 seconds for traffic to pass a sign. A display that changes once every 60 seconds would not unduly distract drivers, according to the association’s memo to town leaders.
Ring said she believes the state will still be the enforcer of the new ordinance, if town officials and voters decide to adopt a town ordinance.
Comments are no longer available on this story